


kingdom dance

by KirstieJ



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-20
Updated: 2015-08-20
Packaged: 2018-04-16 08:41:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4618890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirstieJ/pseuds/KirstieJ
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a prompt from tumblr i got, "runaway royalty and confused commoner au" <br/>Pearl, at the weekly market, is packing up her wares when a mysterious and beautiful stranger asks to buy the last wood carving she has out. During their transaction, the mysterious woman runs away. Naturally, Pearl chases after her. Little does she know, her customer is Princess Garnet, who is trying to escape her royal life for a few hours. </p>
<p>(the title is the song from the tangled soundtrack bc i listened to a bunch of medieval/fantasy music to write this)</p>
            </blockquote>





	kingdom dance

Sweeping her short hair back from her face, Pearl looked out at the rest of the market she was standing in. The sun was dropping lower into the sky, leaving everything basked in an orange glow rather than a bright and hazy one like it had been most of the day. She was tired and sweaty, after standing out attempting to sell some of the wood carvings her older sister had made all day long.

Most of the crowd had died down by now. Earlier, it was packed, with screaming children running around trying to play as their parents browsed the various wares from all the different vendors. It was bustling and busy then, but now only a few people wandered around, mostly adults.

Parting her lips and heaving a sigh, Pearl supposed she might start to pack up. She’d sold a little, but not nearly as much as her sister would hope. It was frustrating, particularly because Pearl wasn’t even supposed to be there that day. She had to skip early morning practice on her violin, and if she didn’t get moving soon she may have to retire before she could get any dancing in tonight. She wished she had gotten the chance to dance during the day, like she often did when she wasn’t busy working. However, her sister needed her help because she’d been called to the doctor’s today to check up something that happened last week.

Pearl turned around and started to put things away in their proper places, packing neatly so there would be enough room for everything. She began to hum along to the music still playing from some street artists a few booths down as she did so, getting lost in her actions rather easily.

Pearl was distracted, so she didn’t notice when a woman about her age walked up to her booth. She was humming, and had even twirled once or twice as she picked up the carvings she was packing until she noticed the other standing there.

“Oh!” Pearl gasped, holding up an intricate design in her hands. It was one of the only ones left to put away. Her cheeks turned warm as she took in the woman standing in front of her. She had dark glasses covering her eyes and much of her face, full lips and a cute nose. Her skin was dark and looked smooth. She had big, curly black hair that was loosely covered by a yellow scarf. Her dress was a dark red. Needless to say, she was breath-taking, beautiful.

“Hello,” the woman said, a little smile quirking up on her lips.

“C-can I help you with something?” Pearl stammered out, still holding the wood carving in her hands.

The lady looked down, or it appeared she did. Pearl couldn’t really tell with those dark sunglasses. There were only two small trinkets left on the table. “Yes,” she said after a moment, and lifted her head back up to (probably) look at Pearl. “How much for the one you’re holding?”

“It’s,” Pearl looked down, dumbstruck in the presence of the gorgeous woman, especially after being startled as she was. She couldn’t quite remember the price, so she made something up that would hopefully be in the range. Her list was already tucked away, and it probably wouldn’t matter so much in the end.  

Pearl turned around to grab a bag as the woman took out some money.  
  
As Pearl was looking away, she heard someone scream something that brought her attention to the general direction of the noise.

“Garnet!!”

Pearl watched as the smile on the lady in front of her dropped instantly. She let go of the money she was going to hand Pearl (it was entirely too much, more than Pearl had asked) and turned to run in the direction opposite of the yelling.

“Wait!” Pearl yelped, scooping the last two trinkets and money into the bag with the carving the lady (Presumably Garnet?) had left, as well as grabbing the case with the rest of the carvings in it. “At least take this! And your change!” She started to run after the lady, not wanting to feel like she robbed her of her purchase despite the woman being chased by someone else. It was a long day.  

After a few moments of running, Garnet looked back. Pearl was a dancer, she was athletic, and training to swordfight as well. She was quick on her feet. Pearl held out her arm when Garnet turned her head, but instead of taking the bag, Garnet grabbed her arm with a gloved hand of her own. Pearl noticed, in the brief moment she looked down in confusion, that the woman had a few very sparkly bracelets covered in red and blue gems hanging from her wrist.

With Garnet’s tugging, Pearl sped up her run. She had no idea what was happening, now, but the customer still hadn’t taken her things.

All of a sudden, Garnet turned a sharp corner and took Pearl right along with her. Pearl yelped again, but kept up fairly well. She knew exactly where she was, which helped. She was able to mentally follow along as Garnet pulled her down another few turns, probably trying to confuse whoever was chasing them.

Once they hit a dead end, Garnet stopped suddenly, sending Pearl crashing into her back. Garnet was pushed forward, but didn’t fall, so Pearl was left with her cheek pressed to the back of Garnet’s scarf. As she righted herself, she noticed calling the scarf yellow was a bit of an understatement. It was definitely gold, and had an woven design on the back that looked rather familiar. Pearl stared for a moment or two, and as Garnet turned around, it clicked.

“Garnet,” Pearl whispered, her eyes narrowed. Her breathing was heavy, but she could still talk.

The woman began to lift the scarf from her hair, and after that lowered her glasses and folded them to reveal two stunning eyes of different colours, as well as a purple jewel on her forehead.

“My apologies,” she spoke with an accent, one picked up from studies in faraway lands no doubt.

“I,” Pearl said. She wasn’t sure what to make of this situation. Her first reaction would be to question exactly what the hell all of this is about. But, Garnet was no ordinary person she could go mouthing off to. She was the princess of her land, daughter of two queens, a skilled and brilliant woman in her own right.

“I didn’t mean to drag you into this. I panicked when you got close,” Garnet explained calmly.

Pearl just shook her head. She was already gross from the heat all day, and now fresh sweat clung to her skin from the run and she was standing in an ally with a  _princess_. Pearl blinked a couple times before she lowered her case to the ground, and used her free hand to attempt to fix her hair.“It’s, um, not a problem your highness,” she quickly got to explaining.

“Please, cut that out right now,” Garnet held up her free hand, gloved in a smooth black material. Her bracelets jingled as she did so.

“E-excuse me?” Pearl tucked one last strand of hair in what she hoped was the right place and blinked again.

“Call me Garnet. Pretend I’m nothing but another customer who you had to run after for carelessly leaving my things at your stall, even. Just no ‘your highness’s right now.”

“Um, okay,” Pearl said. “Well, uh… Ma'am, them, since you’re my customer. You, ah, you left your purchase,” Pearl told her. She lifted up the bag. “It doesn’t cost nearly as much as you gave me, though, so give me a moment..”

Garnet took the bag and watched as the merchant girl she’d met only minutes ago knelt over the case she’d been packing when Garnet first encountered her.

“Oh no,” she heard the woman gasp, “no, nonono.”

“Is everything alright?” Garnet asked, bending forward a bit.

“I… must have left the cashbox back there, at my booth.” Garnet could hear panic slipping into the poor woman’s voice as she babbled on about what could happen to it, how they needed that money, her sister was at the doctor and she herself needed new dancing shoes next month.

Garnet put her hand on the girl’s shoulder and broke her rant, but when the merchant looked up at her she had tears welling in her pretty eyes and Garnet felt guilt hit her like a fist to the gut. If it wasn’t for her, she would be back at her booth with her money rather than in an alleyway with only her wares.

“Ssh sh, it’s okay,” Garnet said, voice breaking the calm tone she’d kept the entire time.

“It’s really not,” the merchant argued, turning her face away and bringing a palm to her eyes.

“Nono, please don’t cry. I promise, it will be fine,” Garnet told her, though her voice portrayed worry so it might not be helping. She wasn’t worried about the money the woman had lost because she could easily replace that, but she was worried about the distress on her face that Garnet had caused.

The woman furiously rubbed at her eyes and Garnet gently tried to turn her face back towards her. “It will be okay,” Garnet told her, making her voice more confident. “If your money was stolen, I will personally replace it.”

Pearl sniffed, letting her head be turned. She wasn’t fully crying, so perhaps she wasn’t too ugly yet, but she knew her eyes were at least puffy which was bad enough. At least she got to look into Garnet’s gorgeous eyes some more.

Pearl nodded a little and moved to close her case. Garnet gave her some space, standing up and stepping back. “We’ll go back and check right away,” Garnet told her.

“Okay,” Pearl murmured as she stood up.

“I never got your name,” Garnet told her, moving to put her glasses back on as they went to step towards the sun.

“It’s Pearl,” the merchant said, looking over at Garnet. Garnet and Pearl. That sounded nice, not unlike Garnet’s mothers being Ruby and Sapphire.

“Pearl,” Garnet nodded. “Pretty,” she commented, and Pearl blushed again. Garnet could hardly notice. “I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused,” Garnet added a moment later as she wrapped her scarf back around her hair.

“If you don’t mind my asking,” Pearl said carefully, holding her case with two hands. “Why are you… running from someone?”

Garnet sighed and looked down, kicking a small stone out of the way. “I’m about to sound really selfish,” she warned. “Being a princess isn’t very fun. It’s restricting, being hovered over by one caretaker or another. My mothers were raised royal as well, so they get that I want freedom, but their only advice is to deal with it. It must be this way,” Garnet’s last line took on a cooler tone, probably mimicking the direct words of someone else.

“I don’t think that sounds selfish, per se. It’s okay to want to have some freedom.. and it’s rather unfair that you get none,” Pearl told her.

Garnet shrugged her shoulders.

“In fact, I sort of know how you feel. I come from a big family, but there’s always a lot of responsibilities. I wanted to dance today, but instead I had to sell for my sister. I don’t mind picking up the slack, but it would be nice to do as I please sometimes without checking in with each and every one of my family members first,” Pearl sighed. “Does that make me selfish?” she asked, genuinely wondering what the princess thought.

“No, I don’t think so. I guess we could both use some freedom,” Garnet murmured, thinking. After a beat, she glanced around her. “I’m sorry, do you know where we’re going?”

Pearl laughed a little, sudden. Of course Garnet wouldn’t be familiar with this area. “Yes, I do.”

“Okay, good,” Garnet made a little noise in relief. They didn’t make it through quite as quickly as when they were running, but Pearl was able to pick a much shorter route back to their destination. Garnet asked Pearl a few idle questions about the family she spoke of, and about herself. How many siblings, what type of dance Pearl did, things like that. Pearl was happy to ramble for the most part, which Garnet enjoyed. She seemed like a nice woman.

“There you are!” a voice yelled in an accusing tone as soon as Pearl and Garnet reached the booth. Two women were standing there. One wore a light green headscarf and a sparkling green necklace. The other was tall and had her hair pulled back, she was wearing orange robes. The tall one was the one that spoke.

“Wait, didn’t you run after me? Why are you still back here?” Garnet asked. She’d expected the two to be somewhere along the streets, not here.

“Well, we were gonna. We came over to investigate where you’d been and were about to run after you. But then Peri noticed that the merchant left something here and said we were morally obligated to stay here and watch over it.”

Pearl’s eyes went wide. She spotted said ‘thing’, the cashbox, sitting on the chair she’d been seated at earlier. “Oh, thank the Goddess,” she gushed, running over to it. Garnet smiled and walked behind her. Pearl lifted it onto the table where the carvings had been, and looked at Garnet. “Okay, now I can give you your change,” she said as she went to open it.  

“Oh, please,” Garnet put her hand on Pearl’s. “Keep all of the money I gave you. For the trouble I caused. Use it for your shoes.”

Pearl looked surprised for a moment. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Yes,” Garnet told her, squeezing her hand.

“Okay,” Pearl let herself smile. It was a little too giddy for someone getting some extra money, but where it was coming from was a pretty special place.

“And,” Garnet said, taking her hand from Pearl’s. Pearl shut the box and put it in her case, then looked over to Garnet. Garnet had slid three of the bracelets from her wrist, and held them out to Pearl. There was one with dark red gemstones, Pearl would guess garnets if she had to. The other two had red and blue on both of them, Pearl would think they were rubies and sapphires. Garnet left herself with only one, another in dark red. “I’d like you to borrow these.”

Pearl stared dumbly at her, looking from the bracelet back up to Garnet. “Borrow them?”

“Yes. This way, I’ll have to return to you to get them back.”

Pearl felt her heart beat faster. “A-are you sure?” she repeated. She glanced over at the two who had been watching her stand. The one in green was looking at her hand. The other looked intrigued, watching their interactions.

Garnet nodded her head. “I would really like to see you again. But, my life is busy and run mostly by other people,” Garnet took Pearl’s hand, and Pearl watched with a curious expression. Garnet held her wrist as she slid the bracelets onto her arm. “However, if I give you these, it will make a good excuse to get them, won’t it?”

Pearl looked up at her. Garnet was holding Pearl’s hand with both of her own. She held her breath, hoping Pearl was as interested in seeing her as she was in seeing Pearl. Pearl nodded her head, a smile forming on her lips.

“That’s clever,” Pearl admitted, glancing back down to dazzling jewelry on her arm.

Garnet smirked, “I thought so. I think it’ll work well enough. Will you be here next week?”

“I can be,” Pearl told her. “Hopefully I won’t have to sell the whole day.”

“That would be ideal,” Garnet agreed. Garnet hadn’t let go of her hand, yet, but Pearl didn’t mind.

“Mhmm,” Pearl murmured. She took a breath through her nose, before doing something she thought was rather bold.

Pearl leaned forward and kissed the stranger, the princess, she just met on the cheek. As she leaned back, she could see Garnet blushing.

Pearl giggled a little, though she was afraid she may have overstepped her boundaries. Garnet squeezed her hand though, before letting go and looking away.

“I will see you then,” she promised.

“Yes,” Pearl agreed.

“To get my bracelets back,” Garnet cleared her throat, patting her cheeks for a moment.

“Of course,” Pearl said.

“Until then, Pearl.”

Pearl smiled as Garnet looked her way again. Garnet smiled back at her, and then started off with the two guards she was with. Pearl sighed wistfully, watching her go. What a crazy day.

Looking around her, Pearl figured she should probably be on her way again. As she picked up her case, she gasped. The bag! Garnet must have put it down to give her the bracelets, and she hadn’t picked it up again.

“Garnet!!” Pearl yelled out. The princess looked back, and Pearl held up the bag. “You forgot this!!”

“I’ll get next time!” Garnet yelled back. Pearl hung her head and sighed, and she could hear Garnet’s laughter from the distance she was at. It made Pearl smile, but she couldn’t believe the cause of the entire fiasco was  _still_ in her possession.

Oh well. Pearl lightly touched the gems on the bracelet she was borrowing. Just another excuse for Garnet to see her again.


End file.
